Thread: Which part of biology you think is the hardest

I personally think the chemistry part of biology is very hard. YOu have to know too many formulas of how molecules bond to each other. I am also confused on single tail bond, double bond and triple bond.

Virus and evolution are actually quite easy. And they are practical.

Originally Posted by ps2huang

Virus and evolution are actually quite easy. And they are practical.

I probably shoudn't ask, but what is the practical application of evolution, as you see it?

Are you implying that there isn't much practical value from the theory of evolution Ophiolite, or are you using that question to later make a point?

I think I am doing a bit of both. I wanted to see exactly what ps2 saw as the practical value of evolution. I had an unpleasant suspicion that I might not like the answer, but I hoped I was wrong. I was fishing.

Secondly, just what is the practical value of evolutionary theory? Don't tell me that it helps us manipulate livestock and plants. We domesticated all the livestock and derived the grains and vegetables from wild versions without the faintest idea of what evolution was. Evolutionary theory is a valuable plank in the construction of any scientifically based world view, but what can it do for us practically? I have some thoughts, but I'd be interested in what others think.

Evolution is the cornerstone of biology. The first example that pops into my head is with viruses. The fight against AIDS is essentially a race against evolution. The same is true for a lot of infectious virus and bacteria.

I'm not really sure why you discount the role of evolution in agriculture and in breeding, too. Sure it was used before the official "theory of evolution" was established, but it's still evolution behind the scences. And now, with a better understanding of evolution especially at the genetic level, we can apply those principles to even better results.

Along that same line, pretty much any genetics-based science or applications relies on evolution. DNA testing, genetic engineering - without evolution, none of that exists.

Principles of antibiotic use have changed due to our understanding of evolution, because we don't want to impose natural selection for resistance as the selection force in a pathogen.

Selection algorithms have shown a lot of promise. By mimicing the process of mutation + selection, problems can be solved in new and surprisingly powerful ways.

The list just goes on and on. I'm far from an expert on evolution and I'm positive that a true expert could list far more practical applications of evolution at work.

Like I said initially, evolution is basically the cornerstone of biology and is the backbone of truly a lot of science. It's so useful and important to our world today that it's flat out sickening how certain religiously motivated groups are trying to cast doubt on it when it is one of the most well-established theories we have in all of science.

That's excellently put Neutrino. I go the bacterial resistance of antibiotics route when explaining its importance. Evolution as a concept in and of itself, and not just concerning specifically biological evolution.

excuse the joke here... will discuss in 1 min!!!
hardest part of biology , for me... is... the part involved in male reprouduction!!! :>

realy? genitics... and dna. but sadly that is also my faviourite! so i work extra hard at it.

NOTE: excuse the JOKE i couldn't help myself!

I find the process of cell division diffcult, mostly because I'm in college and my teachers still gloss over most of what happens. Also, most of the concepts dealing with population ecology and genetics elude me as well.

the chemistry part of it is difficult, I agree with that. But those are concepts that are fun to figure out.

I just took a marine zoology class where it was simply memorizing family, genus and species names for hundreds of organisms. I am a bad memorizer..and I cant spell especially if i cant pronounce it

I think I would have to say Biochemistry for me. It sn't perticularly hard for me but I find it boring so it's harder to remember or learn in the first place. Also I yawn at the mere mention of signal transduction pathways.

Neutrino said:

Evolution is the cornerstone of biology. The first example that pops into my head is with viruses.

It is possible that I have missed something. Viruses only change into different varieties of viruses. To best of my knowledge, viruses are not differentiated into species, genus, family etc. in any taxonomy chart form which is used to explain the evolutionary relationships between various life forms on earth.

We are not even certain if viruses are animal or plant, nor has anyone ever shown any plant or animal line which may have evolved from viruses.

So how do viruses become an example of evolution? What did they evolve from or to?

Hmmm. I thought someone would hop right on that because viruses are sometimes classified into families, genera and species. However, these classifications are used for descriptive purposes rather than taxonomy purposes. The terms are used to differentiate based on such things as shape -- round ones, oblong ones, skinny ones, fat ones, long ones and short ones, strandings -- as well as other differentiating characteristics.

It still remains, however, that a virus is a virus and viruses with different characteristics cannot be distinguished from each other in the same way that the amoeba can be distinguished from the paramecium.

While viruses are absolutely amazing life forms with an amazing capacity to adapt and change for purposes of self preservation, they still do not serve as an example of evolution -- at least until someone is able to show what viruses evolved from or into.

Hardest part of biology is classification of plants. Grasses (monocots) are the worst.
The most interesting and challenging part is microbiology. You're dealing with living organisms that don't always behave the way you expect them to. It's a reflection of the oft-times ambiguous nature of life. The fun part is trying to find out why.
This why I've spent most of my career doing analytical chemistry. So much easier to trouble a mechanical/electronic instrument when it's misbehaving.
The really gripping stuff is the realm where chemistry and biology cross paths such as biochemistry and molecular biology.

The hardest part of modern biology is to make sense of the amount of information. How signals are integrated into various responses and effects, how differing incoming biochemical signals compete with respect to the genetic background to the organism is the real challenge.

I understand that classification etc is the first hurdle for many- but the "observation" part of biology has become more complex!

To correct a few points- virus evolution is indeed boring, but understand that few changes can radically change viruses. Thus, it's highly important.

Virus are obviously neither plant nor animal, but they are classified into families, genera etc. according their genetic make-up, structure etc. It's not as trivial as you might think it is! Even the smallest viruses -that only encode 4 or 5 proteins- are extremely complicated.

plant's, i dislike em.. io never understand the plant reproduction, just thouhg i'd add some more.

For me...the hardest part would be... Sistematics (taxonomy)... just hate it, knowing every phyla...it's just boring and unnecessary...

Genetics. Very important, but sadly also difficult.

Escherichia, please check the age of the thread before making an addition- this thread has been inactive since 2006 and I doubt that most of the contributors are going to see your post!

Genetics and Microbiology

The mathematics of biology is really difficult, at least for me.

Originally Posted by Benzene

Hardest part of biology is classification of ...

I agree. The hardest part of biology (or any subject) for me is the rote memorization (such as taxonomic classifications). It seems that such material can only be learned that way because it is not part of a logical system (such as equations, relationships, etc) that make some kind of "sense" to our brains, and thus, cannot be remembered as easily.

So we sometimes develop mnemonic devices to help us to remember. That's why we have them ... to create artificial relationships: the ROY G. BIV color scale, the Every Good Boy Does Fine music scale, HOMES for the names of the Great Lakes, etc.

Originally Posted by Ophiolite

I think I am doing a bit of both. I wanted to see exactly what ps2 saw as the practical value of evolution. I had an unpleasant suspicion that I might not like the answer, but I hoped I was wrong. I was fishing.

Secondly, just what is the practical value of evolutionary theory? Don't tell me that it helps us manipulate livestock and plants. We domesticated all the livestock and derived the grains and vegetables from wild versions without the faintest idea of what evolution was. Evolutionary theory is a valuable plank in the construction of any scientifically based world view, but what can it do for us practically? I have some thoughts, but I'd be interested in what others think.

Evolution helps keep us safe from Lamarckists, who can be very charismatic sometimes, and are totally wrong.


ttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamarckism

For example, Lysenko, in the Soviet Union:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lysenkoism

There is a natural popular disdain for theories that value heredity over self improvement, because those make people with less prosperous ancestry feel better about themselves. However, if you try to use a non-heredity based approach to agriculture or animal husbandry, it can have disastrous results, because heredity is, in fact, the only determining factor in those fields. A cow with bad genes will not produce strong and reliable offspring, no matter how badly you want it to. You just have to not let it breed.

Of course, you can't practice animal husbandry on humans, because the people you put in charge of it always manage somehow to determine that their own children are the most genetically fit.

Escherichia, please check the age of the thread before making an addition- this thread has been inactive since 2006 and I doubt that most of the contributors are going to see your post!

Sorry, my bad.

Originally Posted by goodgod3rd

excuse the joke here... will discuss in 1 min!!!
hardest part of biology , for me... is... the part involved in male reprouduction!!! :>

realy? genitics... and dna. but sadly that is also my faviourite! so i work extra hard at it.

NOTE: excuse the JOKE i couldn't help myself!

Dammit! You stole my jokkkkkkkeeeeee

i think the hardest topic is palnts, i don't like studying about them even though they are really important for our planet!
and evolution is confusing for me, i have lots of questions about this topic!

Originally Posted by ps2huang

I personally think the chemistry part of biology is very hard. YOu have to know too many formulas of how molecules bond to each other. I am also confused on single tail bond, double bond and triple bond.

Virus and evolution are actually quite easy. And they are practical.

The hardest part is your colleagues and bosses.